1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for treating gold ores including sulfur containing gold ores and is more particularly directed to a process for recovering gold using a chlorination process wherein the volatile gold compounds formed are removed from the product stream by condensation in a solid salt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The extraction of gold from its ore is accomplished using the cyanide process. The cyanide process has severe air and water pollution problems which are costly to prevent.
The use of chlorine in the metallurgy of gold could eliminate the water and air pollution problems. The volatization of gold chloride during chloridization or chlorination has been extensively studied. The United States Bureau of Mines described their study fo gold chlorination processes in 1923. More recently, Eisele, Heinam and Fischer obtained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,825,651 and 3,834,896 on such a process. An aqueas process is described by Yannopoulos et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,668.
These processes differ from invention in that they do not use the salt condensation system which effect a simple and complete recovery of gold chlorides from the product stream.